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-Use Bleach When Required-
Yon: Ichigo the Gikongan
The real question is not whether life exists after death. The real question is whether you are alive before death.
- Osho Rajneesh
"Sanae-sama, you're going to be late for school," a shy voice said. Sanae rolled over onto her side and rubbed her eyes harshly, removing the crusty sleep particles as a loud yawn escaped her lips. She moved her sleepy sapphire eyes to the doorway where the young dark haired girl was still standing, her body curved around the sliding door.
"Thanks for waking me up." Sanae said as she pushed herself up on the thick futon.
"You're welcome." The girl said, giving her a kind smile before disappearing, shutting the door softly behind her.
Sanae shifted on the futon, pushing the blanket off her legs as she stared down at the healed skin of her injured leg. It had been almost a week since her encounter with the Hollow, and almost a week since she had last spoken to Ichigo. Sanae wouldn't say that she had been intentionally avoiding him, but she had definitely made sure that she was never caught alone at school, fearful of what the carrot-top would ask her if he did manage to catch her alone. After all, none of his other friends were able to see him in Shinigami form so she was like a science experiment to him. During the week, Sanae had been greeted with Orihime telling a wild story about sumo wrestlers breaking her home. It was strange, but apparently not unusual for something like that to come out of her mouth, at least that's what Tatsuki told her afterwards. Sanae had seen Ichigo and Rukia talking quietly after that and had assumed a Hollow had attacked the chestnut haired girl. Sanae didn't worry about it much; no one seemed to be harmed.
Sanae changed into her school uniform, zipping up her jacket and brushing out her shoulder length brown hair. She made her bed quickly and padded across the room in her white socks as she reached the door. All of a sudden the door was wrenched open, a familiar face looming close to hers immediately, "Good morning, Sanae-san!"
"It's too early for you, Urahara," Sanae grumbled, placing her hand over the storekeepers face and forcing him away. The sandy blonde haired man, stumbling back from the force of her shove, quickly took out his fan and waved it teasingly.
"You say that every morning."
"Then I'm surprised you haven't got the hint yet." Sanae muttered grumpily, shutting her door calmly and heading down to the kitchen where her bag was. She could hear Urahara following her.
"Still going to school I see."
Sanae sighed, reaching the kitchen. She sent Ururu a pleasant smile as she walked passed her and to the fridge, pouring herself a glass of juice. She noticed Urahara still standing in the doorway, he was waiting for her to explain about the school thing.
"I've been hiding for a long time, Urahara." Sanae stated.
"For good reason."
Sanae sighed, her eyes glazing over slightly as she stared down into her glass, "The memories I have…the ones I keep trying to remember…there isn't a day I don't think about them. And being around him—Kurosaki, I just get this feeling like…" Sanae paused, trying to find the right words to convey what she was feeling, "Like it's all connected. I know that sounds ridiculous considering what happened."
Urahara stayed silent as he watched her finish the juice and collect her bag, throwing it over her shoulder. Sanae's weary blue eyes glanced over at the clock as she swore, knowing she was going to be late. She was almost at the door when Urahara's voice stopped her, "Sanae-san. Just remember, even though I understand and believe you about what happened that night. There are few who would. It is highly likely that Kuchiki-san knows of your name…just be careful."
There was a pause for a few seconds, "I will."
Sanae came barreling into the room, out of breath and her chocolate brown hair disheveled across her face. "Kagawa!" Nikita-sensei yelled, tearing his eyes away from the chalkboard he had been demonstrating on, "You're late—again! That's the third time this week."
Sanae bowed in apology, shutting the door behind her and trying to fix her messy hair, "Gomen, sensei."
"Detention after school today." Nikita-sensei glowered at her for a few more seconds before turning back to the board. Sanae sighed in disappointment as she weaved herself through the desks, taking her usual seat next to Tatsuki. She fell into the chair, fishing out her textbook and opening it up to the right page but she didn't listen to what Nikita-sensei was talking about. She leaned her head on her chin, her elbow placed on the table as she turned her distant sapphire eyes to the window, staring out of the glass longingly. In the back of her mind she could hear the class discussing fractions, which bored Sanae to no end. Her mind was going over what Urahara had said to her this morning, of course she knew the risks of being in such close proximity to a Shinigami, but Rukia seemed different, one being that she had given a human Shinigami powers which the woman would've known was completely forbidden. Her thoughts shifted to what she had told Urahara about Ichigo. Even now she could feel it, a sort of connection—no not a connection, more like an understanding. It was like when she looked at him, she could see herself reflected in his tawny gaze. Sanae knew it had to be one sided, the notion was ridiculous in itself anyway and Ichigo hadn't given any indication that he felt the same understanding.
X
Sanae let the three periods breeze on by, her mind occupied by 'why's' and 'ifs'. Tatsuki had nudged her ten times in the last period, telling her to bring herself back into the classroom and concentrate before Ochita-sensei made her stand at the front of the class for the remainder of the period. Sanae had tried her hardest to concentrate on her Geography class, but learning about the three different types of rock didn't intrigue her like it should've.
When the bell rang for lunch, Sanae was pleasantly relieved, she packed away her books as Tatsuki leaned against her desk, "You've been awfully spaced today."
Sanae met her stare, laughing softly and tucking her hair behind her ear, "I didn't sleep well last night and it's catching up with me." Tatsuki seemed to buy it as suddenly there was a commotion at the back of the room. Sanae and Tatsuki both turned at the same time to see Rukia dragging a wounded Ichigo out of the classroom by his head.
"Are you ok, Kurosaki-kun? Let's take you to the nurse!"
Sanae and Tatsuki shared a confused look at the odd display, Tatsuki frowning in suspicion, "You know…Ichigo's been acting strange ever since Kuchiki-san started here."
"I'm sure it's nothing," Sanae said hastily.
"Yeah." Tatsuki sighed, "It's just weird for him."
"Lunchtime!" Orihime suddenly exclaimed, jumping up from her desk nearby. This caused both Sanae and Tatsuki to walk on over to her with her own lunch held in her hand.
"Don't get so excited over lunch." Tatsuki scolded her lightly, a smirk on her face.
Orihime looked shocked as she held her arms out, "What are you talking about Tatsuki-chan. A normal girl comes to school just to eat her lunch!"
"Well then that proves I'm not normal." Sanae said with a smirk, folding her arms over her chest. Tatsuki sent a grin to her over her shoulder as the three of them sat down at a nearby table. Orihime explained her unique lunch to them as Tatsuki opened up her bento and began to eat.
"Didn't you bring lunch today, Kagawa-chan?" Orihime asked with her mouth half full.
Sanae looked away bashfully, a blush dancing on her cheeks as she rubbed the back of her head, "I was in such a rush this morning that I forgot."
"Here!" Orihime said pleasantly, offering up her large loaf of bread and jam, "You can have some of mine, Kagawa-chan!"
"Uh thanks," Sanae said uncertainly, "But I'm not really that hungry, you enjoy your food, Inoue-san."
"If you're sure," Orihime muttered softly, saddened at the fact that Sanae wouldn't be eating anything 'nutritious'.
Sanae laughed, "Of course! I'm not even that hungry anyway." Sanae said with a kind smile…which dropped when her stomach gave a loud growl. Tatsuki chuckled at the chocolate haired girl.
All of a sudden, an orange haired figure appeared at the window, startling all the students in the class. Tatsuki jumped up in shock as Sanae stared with an open mouth as Ichigo landed on the windowsill in a crouch, "This is ninth grade, group three, right?" Ichigo asked them.
The whole room crowded around the window, Tatsuki keeping a protective arm in front of Orihime as Sanae stood next to Chizuru who was gripping onto her thin arm tightly.
"How the hell did you get up there, Ichigo?" Tatsuki shouted, pointing her finger at him accusingly.
Ichigo grinned, "You saw. I jumped," he stated nonchalantly. The whole room then erupted into conversation about how Ichigo would've managed that.
Sanae continued to stare at Ichigo, her dark brows furrowing in suspicion, That's not Kurosaki, she thought to herself. For one, she doubted the real Ichigo would do something like this, and two, his reiatsu felt different. Sanae watched with hawk like eyes as the Ichigo imposter scanned the room, looking delighted with himself at everyone staring and questioning him.
Sanae's eyes lit up like a light bulb when she suddenly realized why Ichigo's reiatsu felt different, It's a Gikongan! And a horrible one at that! What did Urahara sell him? With a mental slap to her forehead Sanae watched as the Gikongan suddenly beelines it to Orihime, who was still standing with Tatsuki. The Gikongan perched on one of the nearby desks as he took Orihime's hand in his own, his other hand caressing the back of her chestnut hair, "Hello, pretty girl. Will you tell me your name?" The Gikongan then pressed a small kiss to the back of Orihime's hand. The room erupted into girlish screams as Tatsuki ripped the Gikongan away from Orihime.
The two started screaming at each other as Sanae tried to think of something to do before it really got out of hand, the Gikongan that Rukia had used was obviously a defect and was going to get into a lot of trouble if she didn't think of something quick. While trying to think of the best plan, Sanae witnessed the Gikongan smirking and kissing Tatsuki on the cheek, which brought around another shriek from the girls in the classroom as Tatsuki let loose a behemoth screech and started flinging tables at 'Ichigo'.
Sanae felt someone move to her side; she looked across and saw Asano Keigo clinging onto her, "Save me, Kagawa-san!" He cried in fear, watching Tatsuki as she pelted the Gikongan with tables and chairs around the room. Sanae didn't even bother with trying to pry off the hysterical boy. Instead she watched as the Gikongan taunted Tatsuki more about the kiss, which antagonized the plum haired girl further as she bench pressed another table at his head.
The door opened at the front of the classroom, "Stop!" Rukia entered the room, a furious look on her face. From Sanae's vantage point, she saw Ichigo's body tense up, a split second later he was sprinting for the window. "He's coming, Ichigo!" Rukia bellowed.
The real Ichigo appeared in the widow as Sanae let out a sigh of relief, now that Ichigo was here, the nightmare that had been happening for the past ten minutes would be over. Sanae watched as the two Ichigo's had a stare down for a few seconds before the Gikongan started whaling into the real Ichigo. From Sanae's perspective, it was like watching Ichigo fight with an evil twin, but she knew to the students in the classroom, they wouldn't have a clue about what was going on, for them it looked like Ichigo was throwing out random kicks and looking absolutely mental.
The students were questioning what Ichigo was doing when suddenly the Gikongan kicked Ichigo so hard that he went flying through the air, hitting the tables and causing the students to scream in fright.
"What's going on?"
"It's a ghost!"
"Make it stop, Kagawa-san!" Keigo cried out as Sanae finally had the motivation to shrug the hysterical brunette off her arm. The Gikongan was then launching himself out of the now free window as Ichigo ran up to it, Rukia by his side. They spoke for a few seconds before Ichigo launched himself out of the window. Rukia turned and sprinted out the door after him.
X
Sanae wasn't surprised when Rukia returned a little while later with a familiar memory chikan. The classroom had been put back together but the students couldn't stop talking about what they had seen during their lunch. Tatsuki still had a demonic aura around her from the peck on the cheek Ichigo had given her, and not even Orihime could calm her down. Once Rukia had erased everyone's memories from lunch, Sanae excluded, she had left again, leaving the chocolate haired girl to ponder on the events of the day, wondering just what the hell Urahara had called her back to. Who knew that coming back to Karakura town would entail all of…this.
Sanae grumbled to herself as she scrubbed at the chalkboard furiously, her arms were aching from the constant motions, her fingers turning into miniature prunes from the constant dipping into dirty, chalk water. She had forgotten all about her detention after school, seeing as the whole Ichigo incident had taken up her thoughts for the remainder of the day. She cursed herself for being late three days in a row and vowed to herself that she would make it her mission to wake up early in the morning. Or rather, have Ururu wake her up…Sanae was shocking at sleeping, the world could probably be ending around her while she slept and she'd be none the wiser about it.
Sanae wiped her brow with the back of her hand, unknowingly smearing chalk across her forehead. She heard the door open to her right, she expected to see Nakita-sensei walking in to make sure she was actually doing the work, but was surprised to see Ichigo walking in with a scowl on his face, not that the scowl was unusual.
"Kurosaki-kun, what are you doing here?" Sanae asked him.
Ichigo held up a bucket of water in one hand and a cloth in the other, "Detention for damaging school property." Ichigo glowered at the floor, "Even though it wasn't me." he grumbled under his breath, Sanae hadn't heard the grumble as she turned and continued on cleaning. Ichigo moved to the desks and began wiping away at them, and also the chairs and the legs.
Sanae was hyper aware of the fact that this was the first time the two had even spoken in a week, she had been expecting him to already bombard her with questions about Souls and Hollows and how long she had been able to see them, so it was a surprise for her when she snuck a glance over her shoulder at the orange haired teen. He was furiously scrubbing at the chair leg, not looking in her direction. Sanae pursed her lips, dropping the dirty cloth into the bucket and leaning against the damp board.
"So, are you…you? Or that weirdo who kissed Inoue-san and Arisawa-san?"
Thunk.
Ichigo had dropped his head down, colliding with the seat of the chair. Sanae suppressed her smirk.
"It's me," came Ichigo's muffled reply. He slowly raised his head, his brown gaze slowly moving over to hers as her strange sapphire eyes met his. There was a moment between them; it was only for a fleeting second, where there was no classroom, no Shinigami duties, nothing; only Sanae's sapphire eyes and his tawny brown. As quickly as the moment had come, it vanished, leaving Ichigo wondering and Sanae reaffirming her suspicious about this curious connection she had with the Substitute Shinigami.
"So you really can see Souls, huh," Ichigo muttered to her.
Sanae slowly approached him, her brown shoes clicking against the tiled floor as she came to a stop at the desk Ichigo had been cleaning, "I'm surprised you're only asking me about this now."
"You've been avoiding me for a week," Ichigo pointed out to her, he shrugged his shoulders at her. "I assumed you didn't want to talk about it."
"Well, I'm here now." Sanae said matter-of-factly, "Ask away, Kurosaki."
Ichigo stood up, dropping the cloth as he towered over the small girl; she was taller than Rukia, but smaller than Tatsuki and Orihime. Sanae had to crane her neck back to meet his gaze.
"How long have you been able to see them?" Ichigo asked.
"Since I was young." Sanae replied, her tone of voice conveying that she wasn't going to elaborate on it any further.
"You risked your life to save the Soul, why?"
"Wouldn't you?" Sanae's question caught Ichigo off guard for a second, he felt like replying that if she had asked that question a couple of weeks ago, he would've said no.
"Oi! Kurosaki! Kagawa!" The two teens jumped at the new voice, their eyes cutting over to the open door where Nakita-sensei had stuck his head in, "Get back to work otherwise you'll both be back here tomorrow!"
"Hai, sensei." Ichigo replied in a monotonous tone. Sanae had already darted back to the chalkboard and gathered her bucket before leaving to go to the next room.
X
Sanae adjusted the strap on her shoulder bag, twisting it the right way as it settled against her hip comfortably. She stood by the gate to the school, basking in the setting sunlight. The sun had turned her hair a reddish shade as she bent down to tie up the lace of her shoe. She could hear footsteps rounding the corner as Ichigo emerged, his hands shoved into the pockets of his trousers. He spotted Sanae, her blue eyes meeting his as she stood back up, wriggling her one foot on the concrete.
"So what's with the outfit?" Sanae asked suddenly.
Ichigo frowned, "What outfit?"
Sanae huffed, crossing her arms, "You know. The black one, the one where you wield the larger-than-life-sword."
"It's not an outfit," Ichigo defended harshly. "It's a Shinigami uniform."
"Shinigami?" Sanae questioned, an eyebrow quirked.
Ichigo sighed, "Jeez. It's what I am…well sort of."
"So wearing stupid outfits is now a job? Sign me up," Sanae said, sarcasm dripping from her lips.
"It's not stupid!" Ichigo defended, glowering down at her. Sanae laughed at his expression, infuriating the boy even more. "You shouldn't be laughing, I saved your ass the other week. Come to think of it, you didn't even thank me!"
"Yes I did." Sanae said, planting her hands on her hips, "I left you a note in the clinic."
Ichigo rolled his brown eyes and leaned back slightly, "A note doesn't equate to the real thing, baka." In the next moment, a heavy weight pressed down on them, it was the feeling of a Hollow nearby. Their heads both turned in the direction where it was coming from.
"It's a Hollow," Ichigo muttered, more to himself then to the short brown haired girl next to him. Her bright eyes had narrowed slightly. Sanae took off at a sprint, tearing passed the stunned carrot head.
"Oi!" Ichigo yelled after her. She didn't stop as Ichigo cursed under his breath and ran after her.
A/N:
I told you guys that I would have another chapter up soon! Thank you everyone who's following this story and reading and reviewing. I'm so happy! Also just a quick fact: The reason the number 4 is Yon and not Shi is because Japanese do not like using the word Shi as it sounds too much like the word 'Death' so they prefer to use Yon. Also, I did watch the Japanese version and not english version of bleach so I will be using suffixes and the way I heard them speak names and titles.
I know it was another short chapter but they will be getting longer soon. And if the scene with Kon felt rushed...it's because it was. We all know what happens in those scenes and I hate writing out episodes word for word, I prefer original scenes of my own, so yeah, any episode scenes will be briefly recapped and if it directly affects Sanae then yeah I'll be going into more depth but just a heads up...(I said yeah a lot, I'm aware)
Nixxon Mysterio - Thank you so much for saying that! I've been trying my butt off to make sure I'm keeping characters in check. It's fun but tiring to make sure I am happy with the way they are acting at all times...hopefully it'll get easier with time!
slythejay - Thank you~
strykerhl - Yeah I watched the original japanese version so the way I've heard them speak will be how I write it. If there is any confusion please don't be afraid to ask for clarification! Thank you so much!
See you next time for a Hollow confrontation with Ichigo and Sanae working together!